Feet of Clay

[Edgy MD]

This picture is from 1980. Mets batter Mike Jorgensen is confronting Expos pitcher Bill Gullickson after taking a fastball up and in.

What else stands out in the picture?



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Obviously, any number of things can provide a satisfactory answer to such a broad question, depending on your perspective. The answer we're looking for is ... this screen shot provides the earliest known appearance of a cleat cleaner affixed to the back of a Major League mound! If you asked me when cleat cleaners became a ubiquitous part of the MLB experience, I'd've guessed somewhere around 2000, with the Mets adopting it for their home park neither earlier nor later than the mean MLB team, but apparently, the Mets have had cleat cleaners on their mound longer than they've had blue walls!

All this and more, in a deep-diving piece on cleat cleaners from Fangraphs!

[metirish]

A lot of foul territory too

[MFS62]

The first thing I noticed is that the bat is nowhere to be seen.
If it is still in his hand, it is at a weird angle (downward), and covered up by the pitcher.
If he had tossed it, where? At the pitcher? If tossed toward the dugout it was a healthy toss.

Later

[Benjamin Grimm]

Is that Gary Carter behind the plate?

[Edgy MD]

No, although squinting enough at the low-res features could convince you it's Carter, he's got a stature more typical for catchers of the era than the 6'2" Carter.

It's Carter's backup John Tamargo, getting Game Two of a July 4 doubleheader. Jorgensen played this perfectly, as Joel Youngblood had just homered, apparently precipitating Gully's purpose pitch. By confronting but not charging the pitcher, Jorgy underscored the pitch's intent, and Gullickson got tossed after only a third of an inning.

A starting pitcher getting tossed after only one out in a four-run first in Game Two of a doubleheader sounds like as solid a recipe for victory as a team could find, but this was the 1980 Mets, and so, not so much.

[metirish]

Is T. Bernazard the same one that would surface many years later as Omar's consigliere?

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, that's our Tony.

[MFS62]

I hadn't thought of Mark "Boom Boom" Bomback, and his appropriate nickname, for years.
Later

[metirish]

R. Office in RF , that was his "office"

This thread could have a lot of life , rough times for the Mets viewers back then ?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, it wasn't the best of times. We got a dose of optimism when George Foster arrived in 1982, but that didn't last long. 1983 was the real turning point: Seaver returned, Darryl was promoted, Keith arrived. And watching the games got a lot more entertaining when Tim McCarver and Steve Zabriskie replaced Lorn Brown in the booth. The two of them were fun in their own right, and they reenergized Ralph Kiner.

[Edgy MD]

But we tuned in nightly, riveted by the knowledge that we had a forward-thinking organization that was way ahead of the culture on cleat cleaners.

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Trevino runs for Hodges after a single in the first inning? I hope Ron is okay.

[Edgy MD]

I take it back. Gully wasn't pulled. Apparently he stayed in, let Jorgensen and the next two batters reach, and got pulled on merit, rather than tossed.

[Fman99]

But we tuned in nightly, riveted by the knowledge that we had a forward-thinking organization that was way ahead of the culture on cleat cleaners.

This struck me as absurdly funny